During operation of an internal combustion engine, a fraction of combustion gases can flow out of the combustion cylinder and into the crankcase of the engine. These gases are often called “blowby” gases. Typically, the blowby gases are routed out of the crankcase via a CV system. The CV system passes the blowby gases through a coalescer (i.e., a coalescing filter element) to remove a majority of the aerosols and oils contained in the blowby gases. The filtered blowby gases are then either vented to the ambient (in open CV systems) or routed back to the air intake for the internal combustion engine for further combustion (in closed CV systems).
Many CV systems utilize rotating coalescers. Rotating coalescers may include fibrous filters as well as centrifugal separation devices. Performance attributes of rotating coalescer devices may be measured in terms of pressure drop (or rise) through the device and efficiency of oil removal. In rotating coalescers, the oil droplets (e.g., aerosol) suspended and transported by the blowby gases are separated inside the coalescer media through the particle capture mechanisms of inertial impaction, interception, and diffusion onto the fibers. By rotating the media, inertial impaction is enhanced by the additional centrifugal force. In addition to this aspect, after the oil droplets coalesce to form larger drops, the centrifugal force removes the larger drops by overcoming the surface drag force of the media fibers. This aspect increases the collection of and the discharge of the oil from the coalescer by providing improved drainage compared to a stationary coalescer. In turn, the improved drainage from the rotating coalescing filter aids in improving the filtration efficiency as well as greatly reducing the pressure drop across the filter.
Since the rotating coalescer is positioned within a static filter housing, there is typically a slight gap between the rotating components and the stationary housing. For example, a gap may exist between the static inlet of the housing and the rotating inlet opening of the rotating coalescer. This gap can allow unfiltered aerosol contained in the blowby gases to bypass the rotating coalescer if the downstream pressure on the clean side of the rotating media in the radial vicinity of the gap is lower than the upstream pressure on the dirty side of the rotating media in the radial vicinity of the gap. Exemplary gaps are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,310, entitled “APPARATUS FOR REMOVING OIL MIST,” by Hotta (see, e.g., the gaps in FIG. 4). The bypass of unfiltered blowby gases can be detrimental to the efficiency of the CV system, particularly at larger aerosol sizes for which the filtering medium is highly efficient at removing. One solution is the use of a high rotational speed rotating coalescer that creates the necessary pumping pressure to cause positive recirculation through the gap (i.e., the recirculation of already filtered blowby gases from the clean side of the filter media to the dirty side of the filter media through the gap). However, the increased mechanical loads caused by the high rotational speed rotating coalescers may reduce reliability and/or increase costs. Additionally, certain internal combustion engines may not be equipped with the components necessary to rotate the rotating coalescer at the required high speed while maintaining a reasonable media permeability and thickness.